Russ: The Atlanta Rapper Making Moves In The Music Industry

With Russ becoming a household name in just a few years, people are still forming their opinions on whether the artist is their cup of tea or not.  Let's take it back and see how Russ cemented himself in hip-hop.

In October 2014, Russ Vitale logged on to SoundCloud for the first time. His strategy was simple: post one new song every week.

By August 2015, he had accumulated 5,000 followers. In September 2016, he surpassed 200,000 followers. It is now April 2019, and Russ has 766,000 SoundCloud followers, as well as a record deal with Columbia Records and co-signs from everyone from Kylie Jenner to Rick Rubin.

How did Russ pull himself up from the gutter of SoundCloud to become one of the music platform's brightest stars? In a nutshell, he spoke his success into existence. With each weekly release, he expressed themes of aspiration, determination, and self-reliance.

Unlike many artists, Russ got his start doing everything himself—rapping, writing, singing, producing, mixing and mastering—in his Atlanta basement as a teenager. After releasing 11 mixtapes in a two-and-a-half-year span, he’d gained enough leverage to land a multimillion-dollar advance from Columbia with a rare 50/50 profit split on future releases last year.

Russ became an independent, do-it-yourself act more out of necessity than as a part of a carefully considered business decision. He started making music as a teenager but didn’t know anyone who could mix or master the songs he wrote, rapped and sang, so he taught himself with the help of online how-to guides. He did the same with distribution, where his research led him to TuneCore, an indie service that allowed him to place his songs on major streaming services. If he’d signed with a label at the outset, he likely would have had to give up his master recordings and publishing rights. Instead, he hung onto both.

By 2017, though, he’d reached a point where he felt the only way to take the next step in his career was to break into radio. So he waited until Columbia offered him a deal that allowed him to keep his catalog—and gave him a multimillion-dollar advance—before signing.

Sure enough, the deal paid off, and his major label debut, There’s Really A Wolf, peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 album charts, launching him to 1 billion audio streams in 2018. His follow-up album, ZOO, climbed to No. 4

“His work ethic was top notch, and due to his constant communication with his fans and his willingness to tour, he had built himself an army of rabid fans,” says Imran Majid, executive VP and co-head of Artists & Repertoire at Columbia Records in an interview with Forbes. “Rarely do you have an artist who understands not only the artistry but also the business side of things. Russ has a very clear vision, and he knew exactly what he wanted and exactly where he wanted to go.”

He has a good reason to be feeling himself. First, he earned two platinum plaques for his singles "What They Want" and "Losin Control." His debut album There's Really a Wolf, also went platinum with no features.

Russ ended up pulling in $15 million from Forbes’ June 2017/18 scoring period claiming the No. 20 spot on Forbes’ list of hip-hop’s top earners and a featured spot on their 30 Under 30 list in the Music category.

You can see Russ perform live at Auckland’s Spark Arena - 13th July. Tickets are on sale from HERE.